Bartholomew County Sheriff Matt Myers is urging you to enjoy yourself during any Super Bowl activities you might have planned for Sunday, but make sure to stay sober and safe if you are driving.

Myers said that his department is working in conjunction with the Governor’s Council on Impaired and Dangerous Driving and the Indiana Criminal Justice Institute to get the safety message out.

According to numbers from the agencies, during the 2015 Super Bowl weekend there were nearly 740 traffic crashes in Indiana and 45 percent were alcohol related.

The agencies are offering several safety tips for this weekend, including:

• Before the celebration begins, plan a safe way home
• Do not drive impaired
• If you do drink, call a cab or designate a sober friend or family member, and give them your keys
• If you see a drunk driver on the road, call 911
• If you know someone who is about to drive or ride impaired, take their keys and help make arrangements to get them home safely

Bartholomew County is looking for your thoughts on new proposed rules for large commercial farms.

A committee has been studying the issue of large confined feeding operations for about a year and a half and ended up with two sets of recommendations — a majority view that leans more towards the needs of farmers and a minority view that generally looks to place limits on the large farms.

Both sides have suggested new rules including increasing the distance those large farming operations must be from homes, schools and churches, said Jeff Bergman, director of the city-county planning department.

For complete details on the proposal, you can go to the city’s website at columbus.in.gov/planning.

A public hearing will be Wednesday following the Bartholomew County Plan Commission meeting in the main meeting room at Columbus City Hall. The plan commisison starts at 8:30 a.m.

A driver hoping to avoid a speeding ticket, ended up getting arrested after allegedly fleeing from Jennings County deputies at speeds of up to 100 mph this morning.

Lt Mike Mowery with the sheriff’s department said a chase started at about 5 a.m. today. A deputy noticed a car speeding on Highway 3 near County Road 500S but the driver refused to pull over and instead raced away at speeds of up to 100 mph, Mowery said.

The driver couldn’t make a turn near County Road 850S, drove through a store parking lot and then into the field. Mowery said the driver, 42-year-old Roger J. Napier of Scottsburg, told police that he ran because he didn’t want a speeding ticket. He is facing preliminary charges of resisting by fleeing and reckless driving.

And he was cited for speeding, Mowery said.

Cummins Inc. saw its revenues for the last quarter of 2015 fall 6 percent from the year before and earnings were down for the year half a billion dollars.

The company released its year-end and fourth quarter financial statements this morning.

According to the filing, fourth quarter revenues of $4.8 billion were down 6 percent from the same quarter in 2014. Company officials said that a strong U.S. dollar knocked sales down by 4 percent.

North American revenues fell 2 percent and international sales were down 12 percent compared to the fourth quarter last year.

The company announced that earnings were down 13 percent from last year’s fourth quarter.

Looking at the whole year, the company reports that earnings before interest and taxes were was $2.09 billion for the year. That compares to to $2.53 billion in 2014, excluding one-time items.

Company press release

Former U.S. Congressman Baron Hill, a Democrat and Seymour resident, filed yesterday to run for the U.S. Senate seat now held by Sen. Dan Coats.

Hill represented southeastern Indiana’s congressional district and served for five terms. He was first elected in 1998 and lost to Mike Sodrel after three terms, then held office for four more years before losing to current Congressman Todd Young.

Hill is the only Democrat to file for the U.S. Senate. Republicans Young, Marlin Stutzman and Eric Holcomb have filed to run on the Republican side.

Gov. Mike Pence, a Republican from Columbus, and Democrat John Gregg have both turned in their signatures to the secretary of state’s office and are the only candidates so far to enter their party’s governor’s race. The two will be in a rematch of their 2012 race.

Local candidates who are interested in filing to run in this year’s countywide elections can still do so until noon tomorrow. In Bartholomew County, you can file at the voter registration office in the county courthouse.

Enkei America made a major gift to the Columbus Indiana Philharmonic this week — a world-class Shigeru Kawai grand piano.

David Bowden, the music director and conductor of the orchestra called it a breathtaking gift, astonishing in its generosity.

The aluminum-wheel manufacturer has a factory in the Walesboro area. Enkei America CEO Junichi Suzuki said that the company is impressed by the community’s focus on arts and music and means for the gift to be available for generations to come.

According to the Philharmonic, the instrument will be available for use by the community for appropriate musical events. A home for the instrument hasn’t been finalized but The Commons is a likely place, said Margaret Powers, the philharmonic’s executive director.

The nine foot long piano weighs more than 1,100 pounds and fewer than 20 are produced a year.

Schneck Medical Center is celebrating “Heart Health Month.”

Stephanie L. Furlow, the spokesperson for the Seymour hospital, explains that cardiovascular diseases, including stroke, are our nation’s number one killer, with one in every three deaths being from heart disease and stroke. She says that equals 2,200 deaths per day.

Furlow says that high cholesterol, high blood pressure, obesity, diabetes, tobacco use, and secondhand smoke, among others, are all risk factors associated with heart disease. She adds that a healthy diet and lifestyle are the best means to fight heart disease.

Furlow adds that early detection and treatment of heart disease is important. In the spirit of “Heart Health Month,” she says that Schneck is offering the Cardiac Calcium CT Scan for only $59 through February. Furlow adds that the cost of this test is not covered by insurance.

Furlow notes that the scan is a painless, safe test that can help determine whether you are at risk for a heart attack. The procedure, which she says does not require a physician referral, evaluates and measures the calcium build-up in your coronary arteries. Overtime, progression of plaque build-up can narrow the arteries or even close off blood flow to the heart.

To schedule your Cardiac Calcium CT Scan, call Schneck at (812) 522-0433.

Columbus Police arrested a local woman on drug charges early Wednesday morning.

Department Spokesman Lt. Matt Harris says that the arrest came after she was pulled over at approximately 1 a.m. He explains that Officer Robert Mitchell stopped a vehicle in the 3500 block of 25th Street after the driver failed to dim their headlights. The officer reports that when he spoke with the driver, 41-year-old Shannon L. Lawson, of Columbus, he observed marijuana in the vehicle.

Lawson was taken into custody and officers searched the vehicle. Harris says that during the search, police found two individually packaged bags of methamphetamine and other items often used in the sale and distribution of narcotics. These items allegedly included several empty plastic bags and a digital scale.

Lawson was arrested and booked in the Bartholomew County Jail on preliminary charges of Dealing in Methamphetamine, Possession of Marijuana and Possession of Drug Paraphernalia. She was being held on a total of $121,000 in bonds.

NASCAR star and Columbus native Tony Stewart has been hospitalized with a back injury suffered in an accident while riding an ATV. That’s according to Metro Networks.

Our news-gathering partners at Metro are reporting that the three-time NASCAR champion is awake, alert and able to move all of his extremities, but a spokesman for his Stewart-Haas Racing team was unsure as to the extent of the injuries. The 44-year-old is retiring at the end of this upcoming season and was expected to report to Daytona next week to start preparations for the Daytona 500 on Feb. 21.